gged his shoulders.

"How should I know? I wouldn't pay any attention to it, if I were you.
Your uncle can surely have friends at his home without our getting
alarmed over it."

"Mr. Ricaby's dead right," burst in Tod. "It's a bally shame that I told
you. I wouldn't have said a word if you hadn't pressed me. The meeting
probably had nothing to do with you----"

Mr. Ricaby looked thoughtful.

"Birds of a feather flock together. I've known Dr. Zacharie for years.
He always had a bad name. One day he will be shown up as the scoundrel
that he is. If he's in with Cooley and Jimmy Marsh it's for no good.
Still, as Mr. Chase says, it may have nothing whatever to do with us."

Paula shook her head apprehensively.

"I don't know Dr. Zacharie," she said. "But I don't like his name. A
chill came over me when I heard it. I'm dreadfully nervous."

Tod seized her hand.

"Now, Miss Marsh--say one word more and I'll go and kill him! Dismiss
Zacharie and all the others from your mind. Why--they are not worthy to
breathe the same air as you. If you don't brighten up and forget all
about them I'll do something desperate. Anyhow, I came here to-night on
a desperate errand. It was to remind you of a promise."

"A promise--what promise?"

"Didn't you say that you would take me down to the slums one day?"

"Yes, I did."

"Well, I'm ready to go. When shall it be?"

The young girl hesitated a moment. Then she said:

"To-morrow's an interesting day. There are classes at the Settlement
home and house visits among the poor." Holding up a finger, she added
warningly: "Mind, it isn't exactly fun. You'll see a new phase of life,
something you do not know--the appalling misery and sordid wretchedness
of a great, careless city."

"That's immense!" cried Tod, rising enthusiastically. "I'll come for you
to-morrow. What time?"

"About eleven o'clock," she smiled.

CHAPTER XI.

The Bowery, that Broadway of the slums, odoriferous sink of cosmopolitan
pauperism, degradation, and crime, wore its familiar, everyday aspect of
ugly squalor and vice--grimy, dilapidated rookeries, dark, sinister
hallways, filthy, greasy pavements littered with decayed fruit skins,
gutters choked up with offensive black slime, suspicious-looking
characters, abominable stenches of sauerkraut and stale beer which
offended the nostrils on every side. On the slender rails high overhead
occasional trains crashed by with a sullen roar; in the middle of the